xref: /titanic_51/usr/src/man/man1/apropos.1 (revision 95c635efb7c3b86efc493e0447eaec7aecca3f0f)

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.Dd "Jul 20, 2014"
.Dt APROPOS 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm apropos, whatis
.Nd locate commands by keyword lookup
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm apropos
.Op Fl M Ar path
.Op Fl s Ar section
.Ar keyword ...
.Nm whatis
.Op Fl M Ar path
.Op Fl s Ar section
.Ar keyword ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm apropos
utility displays the man page name, section number, and a
short description for each man page whose
.Em NAME
line contains
.Ar keyword .
This information is contained in the
.Nm whatis
database created by the
.Fl w
option used with
.Xr man 1 .
If this database is not present,
.Nm apropos
and
.Nm whatis
fail.
.Lp
Each word is considered
separately and the case of letters is ignored. Words which are part of other
words are considered; for example, when looking for
.Sq compile ,
.Nm apropos
finds all instances of
.Sq compiler
also.
.Lp
The
.Nm whatis
command performs the same search, but only matches whole words. In the above
example,
.Nm whatis
would not match the instances of
.Sq compiler
when
.Ar keyword
is
.Sq compile .
.Lp
The
.Nm apropos
command is actually just the
.Fl k
option to the
.Xr man 1
command.
.Sh OPTIONS
.Bl -tag -width "-s section"
.It Fl M Ar path
Force a specific colon separated manual path instead of the
default search path.  Overrides the MANPATH environment variable.
.It Fl s Ar section
Restrict search to specified section.
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Bl -tag -width "MANPATH, PATH"
.It Ev MANPATH , PATH
Used to find the location of the
.Nm whatis
database.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width "/usr/share/man/whatis"
.It Pa /usr/share/man/whatis
table of contents and keyword database
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
.Ss Example 1 To find a man page whose NAME line contains a keyword
Try
.Lp
.Dl example% apropos password
.Lp
If the line starts
.So Ar filename Ns Po Ar section Pc .\|.\|. Sc
you can run
.Lp
.Dl % Nm man Fl s Ar section Ar filename
.Lp
to display the man page for \fIfilename\fR.
.Ss Example 2 To find the man page for the subroutine \fBprintf()
Try
.Lp
.Dl example% Nm apropos Li format
.Lp
and then
.Lp
.Dl example% Nm man Fl s Ar 3C Li printf
.Lp
to get the manual page on the subroutine
.Xr printf 3C .
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It "/usr/share/man/whatis: No such file or directory"
The
.Nm whatis
database does not exist.
The command
.Nm man
.Fl w
must be run to create it.
.El
.Sh CODE SET INDEPENDENCE
Enabled.
.Sh INTERFACE STABILITY
.Nm Committed .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr man 1 ,
.Xr catman 1M